//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12: Rota Fortunae 
// Story: Fallout: Equestria - Red 36 
// by ElDee 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 12 -



Rota Fortunae



“We’ll pay you triple to slow down!”



The time for the meeting was fast approaching. We all walked together, but soon we were going to part ways for the plan. 

There wasn’t a cloud in sight, but I still felt something strange as we began to make our way to the meeting spot.

Hawkins groaned loudly, stretching her wings now that she was no longer being confined to that small dingy shack.

Outside Dodge City sat a collection of rocky hills and mesas, just before giving way to an impossibly wide open desert. The last stop before that desolate stretch of suicide was Boot Hill.

From the southern outskirts of Dodge, I looked out into the San Palomino and felt a strange sensation. This was the closest thing to the wasteland I’d felt in months. There was a subtle breeze flowing through the air, adding fuel to the fire in me.

“You feel that?” Hotshot asked, curiously.

“Feel what?” I asked.

Hotshot didn’t give an answer, instead looking off into the desert. Suddenly his eyes turned down to a small salamander hatchling sitting in front of him. It raised onto its hind legs curiously, cocking its head, then spit out a tiny ember.

He sneered in disgust. “Ugh. Salamanders…. Beat it, ya little pest!”

“There’s clear weather scheduled for today, so he’ll spot you instantly if you approach him from the sky. Follow from the ground instead. Just keep low and stay out of sight. And don’t kill him until after I’ve talked to him.”

“Aw, why do you have to be such a drag?” Hawkins griped. “It’d be far more efficient to do things that way.”

“I’ve got to ask him something first.” I replied.

Hotshot turned towards me hesitantly, because he could see the look in my eye. “Hey, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, maybe we shouldn’t go through with it after all.” he floated.

“Not happening.” I answered swiftly. “I’ve already made up my mind.”

Unfortunately, I had little choice in the matter.

Hawkins smirked at the pegasus. “You getting cold hooves, pegasus?”

“I’ll be fine…” he glared. “It’s just... that we’re going up against Jagged on his own terms. It’s good to exercise c-”

“Hey, watch it!” I snapped suddenly, and he looked back in surprise. Then I pointed to a small quivering cactus. “You almost stepped on that exploding cactus there. Those things’ll burst at the slightest touch. You’d have been pulling needles out of your unmentionables for a week.”

“Oh, uh…” he replied, pulling his hoof away and edging away from it for good measure. “Thanks.” 

Hawkins groaned and casually asked, “Hey pegasus. Do you know your way around a rifle at least from basic training?”

He sighed loudly. “I have a name you know. I can scout and do basic infantry work, but I wouldn’t be much help since the Enclave trained different tactics to be more effective in aerial combat.”

“Funny,” she grinned, finding amusement. “with a name like ‘Hotshot’, I’d have figured they’d let you into the Wonderbolts on name qualifications alone.”

His ears pinned backwards in annoyance. “It doesn’t work like that. Plus I was never cut out for the Wonderbolts, anyways. Yeah though, to answer your question, I can use a rifle...”

Glancing at him briefly, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen him in a fight once. All I really knew was that he was able to fight in the same way as that bastard Airworthy. Aside from Sunny Hymn, he was the only pony I really trusted right now.

“Shut up, both of you.” I told them both, trying to keep focus on what I was about to do.

“Tch. Bossy, much?” Hawkins scorned.

I shot a glare back at her, about ready to lose my temper, but then my ears perked up. All of us hearing a noise coming from Dodge City. Screeching blared over the loudspeakers of the Ironclad Firearms Factory, with the mayor’s voice echoing loud and clear over the whole town. 

We all stopped and turned around to face the direction of the broadcast.

“Listen up, you lowlifes!” Rubi’s voice boomed. “This is your mayor speaking!”

“Oh, this should be good...” I groaned aloud.

Hotshot let out a concerned sigh in agreement.

“Alright darlings, there’s been a lot of confusion over the last few days, but I’ve always looked out for y’all in this town when you’ve needed me most. So rest assured: Dodge City will remain free!”

The griffon beside me muttered, “Last I checked nothing’s changed. Negotiations are still ongoing.”

I looked at her briefly. It was easy to see Rubi was bold-faced lying to the town. Likely a ploy to take the focus off her own dirty dealings. That mare had no shame at all.

“Onto the first order of business. To all of the ponies going around stirring up trouble: You’re all illegally disturbing the peaceful law and order for rule-abiding ponies in my town! So any good citizens of Dodge are encouraged to shoot those bastards dead on behalf of your mayor. That goes doubly so for the mare named Appleshot Brandy, the leader of these miscreants. Ten thousand caps to whoever brings me her head! I’m also putting out an open bounty for Jagged Knife to the tune of fifty thousand bottle caps! He’s outside of town right now at Gallows Rock. Bounty goes to the first one who kills him! Along with exclusive membership into the Dodge City Gang.”

“Rubi…” I muttered under my breath in contempt. She had such horrible timing. That mare could’ve given Red Eye a run for his money if she really wanted to back in the Wasteland.

Quickly trying to formulate a plan out loud, I suspected it wouldn’t be long before ponies were on their way here. Figuring that would be the end of the broadcast, I spun back around to get there first, “Whatever, we can deal with her later. For now, let’s just-”

“Lastly, there’s one more bounty I should mention. The mare who’s responsible for all of this!” she boomed over the loudspeakers.

My entire body froze, and my ears fell backwards. “Uh, oh…”

“The one who busted up the Rot and threw this whole town into chaos! She fleeced me and she tried to sell you all out to the NCR too! It breaks my poor lil heart to say this darlings. I treated that mare like my own daughter, and this is how she repaid my kindness? That mare’s name is Roulette! Another fifty thousand bottle caps for her, dead!”

My cover was blown and suddenly I had about a dozen targets painted on my back. All I could think about though, was how the hell did she manage to find out so soon?

“You think you can come and take what’s mine?! Don’t mess with me, this is my town!” she shrieked angrily into the microphone. The speakers gave off some ear-splitting feedback, then the broadcast ended abruptly. 

I twitched slightly. Sweat crept down my neck, as I stopped to internally process everything. Slowly, I turned towards my two companions who were both watching me, staring awkwardly.

“W-What are you two looking at?!” I snapped.

Hotshot looked off to the side uneasily, while Hawkins smirked to herself. 

“Y’know, putting out a hit job on an NCR operative would typically be pretty well frowned upon, but technically you’re not NCR. So I guess the mayor’s in the clear.”

I shot her an angry look.

Hawkins rolled her eyes, “Sheesh. Relax, will you?”

“How am I supposed to relax?” I shouted angrily. “Now I’m gonna have to fight off about a dozen bounty hunters just to get to Jagged Knife!”

“Because you’ve got me here with you,” she snorted.

Allowing my stress meter to come back down a little, I realized what she was saying was at least slightly true. I’d been dealing with problems mostly on my own up until now, but it was good to have others I could count on for a change. “Jeez, Rubi is such a pain in the ass…” I huffed.

She then paused for a minute, fiddling with her earpiece. Getting something from her superiors, her expression turned to disbelief. “What?!” she shouted. Although I could only hear half of the conversation, I could assume what was being said. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?!... Ugh. Fine… No. I understand. Yes, sir.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“The situation has changed.” she answered, reluctantly. “NCR brass has ordered me not to get involved for some reason. Makes no damn sense, but it looks like you’re on your own in this.”

“And you’re leaving, just like that?” 

“Sorry. Orders are orders...”

“What happened to helping me kill Jagged Knife?”

“Think rationally, pretty soon the NCR is going to step in and force her to call off your bounty. Now you might not even have to deal with him yourself. This just makes your job easier.” she replied, though she seemed frustrated by the command.

My eyes narrowed on her. In reality, this current situation didn’t help me at all. I wasn’t worried for my own sake, but I still had questions to ask him before I killed him.

She sighed, slinging her rifle over her back. Spreading her wings, she prepped to take flight. “Later, Dirt Muncher.”

Hotshot huffed to himself. “Whatever. We just have to get to Jagged Knife before they do.” Thinking that was that, he turned to leave, but it seemed that Hawkins and I had other plans. “Uh, Roulette...?”

“So that’s it then?” I asked her, both of us ignoring the pegasus completely. There was a short moment in which neither of us replied. He looked between the two of us, unsure what was going on.

“Eyup.”

“Is everything alright?” Hotshot asked, sensing something was up as I approached the griffon. He looked uneasily again in the direction of Gallow’s Rock, then back towards the town again. 

Something else was annoying me then, and I felt that something had to be addressed right now. “And Brandy?” I asked her. “Surrounded by that many opportunists with a high profile bounty on her head, will put that stupid barmare in a lot of danger.” 

Brandy might’ve hated me and it was her own fault she was in this mess, but… dammit. Why did things always have to be so complicated? If anything she certainly didn’t deserve to go out like that.

 The corner of Hawkins’ beak curled upwards in annoyance and she muttered a sarcastic reply. “That’s the wasteland, right?”

Losing my temper I argued back with her, “Do the rules matter to you more than someone's life?! I thought the NCR was all about protecting ponies. I didn’t realize you were the sort to let a bunch of stupid bureaucrats tell you how to live your life!”

Hawkins turned around to face me, puffing her chest out. "Follow your mission to the end, no matter the sacrifice! If you screw up and have to lay down your life for the good of your talon wing, then do so without hesitation. That is our creed!" she declared, pounding her chest twice.

I stopped in confusion for a moment, wondering what that was about, though I remained firm in standing my ground.

“You want to know what happened to her? She grew up. I’m not happy about it either, but those are my orders. Sometimes bad stuff happens and all you can do is sit back and watch. Sometimes bad stuff happens anyways. Do you think this is a game? There are strict rules and regulations that have to be followed in a situation like this, because what we do here affects the rest of the NCR. The world doesn’t work like that. It never did. Not even in the wasteland. You can’t just sing songs about friendship and expect things to turn out okay all the time.”

Trying to find the right words at a time like this was difficult. So I just said the first thing that popped into my head. 

“Look... you might be a huge bitch, but I know you’re not all bad. There’s actually something beneath that irksome personality of yours. If it hadn’t been for you, most of the Rough Riders would probably be dead right now.”

She scoffed, looking off to one side. “That was different...”

“Point is, you don’t stop trying, Hawkins. If you’re going back to town anyways, then at least go help Brandy. Make sure she’s safe from those bounty hunters,” I told her. “While you’re doing that, I’ll take care of Jagged Knife.”

The griffon took it about as well as I expected.

““Don’t stop trying?” What do you think this is?” She scoffed. “My orders were to back your investigation and figure out what you knew. That’s it. The situation has changed now, so we’re done. No matter how much it pisses me off, that’s the way the world works.”

No matter what her possible reasons for thinking this way, to me it all sounded like brahmin shit. Anyways, I wasn’t ready to back down yet.

“You said it yourself in that weird creed thing! The mission isn’t over yet. Not until we’ve killed Jagged Knife. He’s a threat to the ponies living here or whatever, isn’t he? What happened to the snarky gunslinging bitch who would go out of her way to make sure a squad of troopers were safe since it technically wasn’t against orders? Plus you already owe me one, for pulling me away before I could save Sunny.”

“Wha- you owe me for saving your life, you dirt munching idiot!” she sputtered, ignoring my angered glare at that assertion. Raising up on her hind legs, she spread her wings in a confrontational manner and snarled. “Papa Bighoof was coming and I couldn’t very well carry you both! Ugh! Also that isn’t what that means, stupid- !” The griffon huffed loudly. “It’s more complicated than that…. When you don’t follow your contract, bad things happen.”

“C’mon, she may be a stuck up, annoying bitch of an old hag, and I wouldn’t normally care what happens to her,” I admitted, “but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be unceremoniously offed by Rubi like that! Besides, wouldn’t you love to swoop in and see the look on her face once she realizes she’s being saved by the NCR? She’d hate that!”

“You’re not even lis- Not everyone can go around pretending to be the Stable Dweller!” she snarled. “What the hell is with you? Don’t you ever have to think about the consequences to your actions?”

I had never really thought about it before. My body had a tendency to react on its own. I remained standing my ground though.

“I dunno about you, but I’m tired as hell of these assholes sitting on high thinking they can do whatever they want. You and I have both got our issues, but nopony else has to die today.”

Hawkins growled, clutching her head. “Ugh. You’re so damn frustrating! You know that?” When she regained herself, she had calmed down and shot me back a cold glare. “Give me one good reason why I should…,” she said with an audible snort.

Hotshot looked between the two of us, unsure if he should interject. Or if he could for that matter. This was between the two of us.

I exhaled my frustration, but managed to force out a mumble. “Because you’re the best… and I can’t do this without you.” 

Hawkins fell silent, her eyes narrowing at me. The griffon blew up her cheeks, reared back and ruffled her feathers angrily then blew all the air out of her lungs in a single puff which turned into laughter. Hotshot watched, seeming at a loss for words.

“I never took you for such a big softie!” she pointed, laughing at me. I scrunched my face in annoyance. Then to my surprise, she took out her communications device and spoke into it, “Ccchhssszzz What was that, fzzt-at?- sir? I frszhnn't hear ffou! Zzzzt!''

The griffon shook her head in disbelief. “You’re really something else...," she said. "I guess, nogriff could blame me if I saw a random civilian in danger and acted in my best judgement to save them. Since that is the NCR’s prime doctrine and all. Alright, I’m in, if only to see that look on her face.”

I nodded. Were Hawkins and I finally seeing eye to eye? I was almost just as surprised, frankly.

Pulling her revolver from underneath her bandolier, she gave Hotshot her sniper rifle with an added death glare. “Give her sniper support. And if you scratch it or fuck up my scope, you’re dead. Got it?” she threatened, making a fist.

The pegasus nodded his head quickly, showing that he understood.

“I’ll make sure that old mare is safe. I figure you must have some kind of personal beef with Jagged? Just promise me you’ll put a bullet in that bastard’s head for me before this is over.”

“Tch. Yeah, you’re damn right I will.” I said. “I’ll kill Jagged Knife, then we’ll meet up, fight our way to the mayor’s office, and force her to call off that bounty!”

“I can’t put my talon on it, but there’s always been something about you.” Grinning playfully, she teased, “Could you please repeat that last part again about how I’m the best?”

“Don’t push your luck…” I grunted, causing the griffon to burst into laughter again. 

“And you’re sure you’re going to be alright?” she asked. “That’s a lot of bottle caps….”

I grinned and flexed my foreleg. “A few bounty hunters are no problem for me! Didn’t you hear? I’m basically immune to bullets.”

Hawkins gave an amused snort, perhaps unable to tell that I wasn’t joking. “At least watch out for Sharp Eye. He’s Rubi’s hitgriffon. Let’s just say... we’ve got kind of a history.” Then actually sounding sincere for once, she warned, “You know though, I won’t be able to protect you from whatever happens after this is over.”

“Thanks, but I’ll take the risk.”
 
“Alright, I’ll come back to check on you after I’ve saved that dumb barmare. Just…” she paused as if she were choking on her words, attempting to regurgitate them, “don’t wuss out and die before then, Dirt Muncher.”

“Same goes for you, Featherbrain.”

Then she bumped my hoof with her claw. This must’ve been a groundbreaking moment for angry mare and griffon relations everywhere.

Hawkins smirked and spread her wings, taking flight back towards Dodge City. “I’ll make sure your marefriend is safe this time while I’m at it too!” she called back to me, her voice growing more distant as she flew back towards town.

I blushed hotly and shouted back as loud as I could, “She’s not my damn marefriend!” Unfortunately by that point she was already out of earshot, and I groaned in frustration.

Hotshot was continuing to watch in disbelief.

Grinning stupidly, I turned around and shrugged at the pegasus. “Hey, I wasn’t expecting things to go that well either. Though that solves our griffon problem at least,” I joked. “She seems alright, I guess.” I couldn’t help but get the feeling that I’d had her all wrong from the get go.

He looked off to the side distantly. “Are you sure you still want to go through with this?”

The laughter faded as I remembered the reason I came here, and gave the pegasus a silent nod. “Yeah....” When I was serious I looked like a completely different pony.

“You should shoot him as soon as you see him,” he suggested. “Anything that comes out of his mouth is going to be a lie.”

“Not gonna lie, that sounds awfully tempting,” I muttered, making an attempt at playful banter that fell flat. This was going to be easier said than done. He seemed to be having reservations though, eyeing the scoped rifle in his hooves silently.

“Seriously. It’s just- maybe you shouldn’t go through with this after all,” he said, staring at the ground. “I just have a really bad feeling about this.”

Shaking my head solemnly, I replied. “No way. I’m going all the way. I owe it to ponies. Especially to Accolade. Somepony I know always told me that sometimes you have to take a gamble in life.” There wasn’t a lot of time. “Hey, Mohawk? You alright?”

He looked up at me. “I guess… holding this brings back memories of the Enclave, y’know?” he shrugged. “Remember when I told you that you shouldn’t trust anyone in Dodge City?”

“It’ll be alright though, because I trust you.” I smiled.

He swallowed, and nodded. Waving for me to go ahead. “Y-yeah, alright. I'll cover you. Just be careful. You don’t know him like I do.”

“I always am. And hey, just shoot their guns if you’re worried about it. I’ll handle the rest.” I replied, repeating that mantra in my head again, but felt some comfort knowing that I had friends beside me this time. “Most things go alright for me in the end, anyways.”

He spread his wings and took to the air as I began to trot. Fire filled my eyes. Leaving Hotshot behind me, I began picking up the pace. Breaking into a gallop to make up for lost time. We had wasted enough time already. After all, there was no more time to waste. It was time to meet with Jagged Knife and finish this. 





I came to a relatively flat area surrounded by a field of oddly shaped rocks, trotting towards a particularly large boulder with a withered old tree growing out of it where I saw five ponies standing underneath I recognized all of them. They didn’t look too happy to see me though. An open noose hung from the tree branch, swaying in the breeze.

They were all armed with those modified Enclave weapons. This was going to be more difficult than I thought.

As I approached them, I spoke in my best gruff mercenary pony voice. “Hey, guys. I’m here about that job.”

Sting greeted me with a poisoned, “Hey there, Girly…” and I shot him a quick glare.

There wasn’t much time to spend on pleasantries though and we quickly did away with them. Jagged held his plasma pistol aloft with his telekinesis and I aimed back with Winona. The others pointed their weapons at me as well.

The blood pumping through my veins was beginning to simmer with anger. We stood silently in a standoff, until he spoke. I hovered near the trigger, feeling the itch to shoot.

“You’re late.” Jagged moaned. He was wearing his rust-colored wasteland jacket again, with the raider insignia stitched onto the shoulder. “I reckon you heard the news over the loudspeakers? Guess we’re in this together now, aren’t we?” he laughed.

I snarled, bearing my teeth. “Yeah, what the hell was with that announcement? Did you have something to do with it?”

The side of Jagged’s mouth curled up slightly. “C’mon Red, you really think I’d ask Rubi to put a bounty on my own head?”

“Hard to tell, but I wouldn’t put it past you.” I scoffed.

His smile widened. “Now why would I lie to you?” he stowed his gun, urging the others to do the same. 

I could think of a few reasons. My eyes flicked towards the large white stallion briefly who was standing beside him and I made eye contact with him for a split-second. He didn’t say anything though, as usual. I still knew better than to bring up our secret meetings in front of his boss, but he understood what I meant regardless.

Jagged Knife sighed aloud, really playing it up. “I figured she would pull something like this. That’s why I asked you to come along as insurance.  Either way, it’ll be easier to trust each other if we’re both in the same boat.”

I really couldn’t guess what his game was, admittedly, but the sooner I killed him and got this over with, the better. Then I could go back and deal with Rubi. 

Looking around again, there was no sign of Angel Eyes either. In fact I hadn’t heard from him since the last time we met, which gave me all kinds of bad feelings about this.

“We’re late enough as it is. I’ll tell you all about it on the way there.” Jagged Knife offered, urging for us to leave.

“Not so fast.” I replied, reiterating my point with Winona. “Not until you tell me about the Enclave.”

He groaned impatiently. “You really think now is the best time to be having this discussion?”

I clenched my jaw and stood my ground. “Either you tell me about the Enclave now, or we’re not going anywhere.”

“You sure about this, boss?” one of his underlings cautioned. He looked like one of the ponies I met on the caravan raid. “I don’t trust this bitch.”

Jagged put simply. “I don’t care if you do. I say, so that’s how it goes.”

The raider continued to protest his opposition. “But Boss, she’s killed our own! Why the hell are we going out of our way on account of this bitch?”

His boss didn’t say a word as his underling spoke, instead keeping his icy gaze locked on me.

“Ever since Edgy left the gang, we’ve been on a losing streak! Tell us the reason why we’re here. We’re at least entitled to a reason-” he complained. As soon as he mentioned that name, he immediately drew Jagged Knife’s ire. All it took was a mere glance. The pony hastily apologized. “S-sorry, Boss… I meant no disrespect.” 

Jagged exhaled in annoyance. “What did I tell you about bringing up Edgy?”

While the raider begged for mercy, his boss’ toothy smile widened as he looked at him. “Trust me boys, this mare is our salvation,” he declared, putting his hoof on the pony’s shoulder. “She’s a bona fide killer. A regular one-mare army.” Jagged Knife said.

“R-right boss. Whatever you say.” he acknowledged, closing his eyes and shaking like he was about to be killed. 

Instead Jagged Knife patted him on his shoulder, dusting him off. “What’s the matter? You look nervous, friend. Calm down.”

The raider let out a sigh of relief, but shot me with a subtle look of contempt.

Jagged then turned to me again, and said, “Let’s vamoose, before the party starts. There are bound to be more than a few of those bounty hunters on their way here.” He motioned, tilting his head sideways. “Shall we?”

It took me a few moments to mentally process his words. Every second that passed was another moment in which I wanted to drop him dead. I knew that I had to find out what he knew about the Enclave first, but my mind kept going back to what Accolade had told me. As I contemplated what I should do, I thought about doing the deed right now.

Before we could finish our conversation though, we were interrupted by bullets.

Acting quickly, they all darted behind a few of the rocky outcroppings as shots ricocheted close by and returned fire without hesitation. I followed.

They were bounty hunters.

“What do we do boss?” Sting asked.

“Stick to the plan,” he said confidently. Then he looked at me, holding my rifle and chuckled to himself in amusement. “Y’know it’ll be awfully hard to tell you anything if we’re both dead.”

“The plan? What the hell is ‘the plan’?!” I asked in frustration. Then I spat at the ground and poked Winona out from behind cover, and began firing towards where I was hearing the vague direction of gunshots.

Some of the bounty hunters who were eager to be the first to get their hooves on that fortune galloped into the crossfire with bottle caps sparkling in their eyes. They were practically foaming at the mouth as they rushed forward, drooling with anticipation. Only for them to be shot down by Jagged’s plasma pistol moments later.

More began to arrive shortly after, but they were smart enough to use cover. A dust cloud began to pick up around us as ponies joined the fight. Partially obscuring everyone’s visibility and adding to the chaos.

The rocks in the area created dozens of blindspots where ponies could flank you if you weren’t careful, but that also played to our advantage. Jagged chose this meeting spot well.

As I gazed at their lifeless energy-scorched corpses, I realized they weren’t your typical hardened mercenaries. A lot of these were simply normal townsfolk, dressed in ratty and poor attire, but they behaved animalistically acting with reckless abandon. They were almost like chemed out raiders from out of the wasteland, greed-crazed by the promise of a massive fortune.

“Rubi…,” I thought, my blood starting to boil. I’d say Luna-damn that mare to hell, if she wasn’t already the mayor of it.

Jagged noticed me staring at the corpses as he callously gunned down some poor hapless pony and grinned. “What’s the matter, Red? You’re not going to start acting like some namby pamby Stable Dweller who’s never killed before, are you?”

I scoffed, shaking myself out of it. “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, making a burst of bullets fire out of Winona’s barrel. “I grew up in the wasteland, dumbass.”

“We’ll settle this after we get ourselves out of this mess.” Jagged offered, firing shots from his plasma pistol in between sentences. 

I grit my teeth in annoyance as I aimed my rifle at the bounty hunters trying to kill us. Not that I had much of a choice in the matter. Between the two of them Rubi and Jagged Knife were a match made in hell. “Fine,” I thought, but I was going to make him tell me everything after this. And I mean everything.

That’s when we heard a familiar voice call out over the gunfire. “Hey Jagged Knife!” it said. “How the hell are ya?”

It was that pony in the black hat and duster I had met at Cherry Hill Ranch. I guessed that he was siding with Rubi in this conflict.

“Diamondback, is that you?” Jagged called out. “Good to hear from you! Wish I could say it were under better circumstances!”

“Funny, Jagged.” he laughed. “You should’ve stayed loyal to Rubi. That was a bad move on your part. This is what you get for double-crossing the Dodge City Gang.”

Jagged Knife mock-sighed.

“Yeah, I figured Rubi would be awfully cross when she found out. It’s true I was planning on betraying her anyways, but technically she betrayed me first. So how about we call it even?” he quipped merrily. “Congrats on the promotion by the way!”

“Always with the jokes… You’re a fool if you think you’re gonna get out of this alive, Jagged.” he said. “We’ve got all the gangs in Dodge City working on our side, as well as certain interests within the NCR. Plus, we’ve already paid off the Mercenary’s Guild. You’ve got no allies, Jagged. You’re finished.” The pony in the black duster laughed as his group of bounty hunters continued to fire at us from behind their cover. 

“I wouldn’t say no allies.” he grinned, glancing towards me.

As they spoke, I looked around for an escape but we were surrounded.

“Of course, I see you got that mare with you.” Diamondback called out. “I guess she was in on it the whole time. Just so you know, between the two of us though, it’s nothing personal.”

I shouted, “Hey! Don’t drag me in this!” but was ignored.

Jagged shouted back, “Yeah, no hard feelings then!” Then he shot the pony in the forehead with his plasma pistol. The crackling energy burned a deep cavity into the stallion’s brain and he slumped over, dead. “But I’ll tell you what: You can say hello to her for me, next time you meet her.”

Sting snickered at his boss’ actions.

With even more bounty hunters arriving from the East, the fire fight had begun to kick up a lot of dust to the point it was becoming difficult to see.

“Huh, that’s a bit more than I was expecting.” He mused, taking a seat next to me and turning to face the rest of us.

“I don’t suppose you have a way to get out of this?” I groaned, firing another burst from Winona’s barrel.

“Yeah... and it’s a good one.” He said, gesturing behind himself with a tilt of his head. “See that canyon back there?”

“That canyon?” I repeated, looking over my shoulder.

“Hope you brought a stealthbuck, kid.” he chuckled. “Alright, everyone ready? On three...”

That’s when I realized what he was getting at. “Like hell!” I objected, pointing Winona at him. Seeing where this was going, I was definitely not on board with this plan. “How stupid do you think I am?!” I growled, pointing Winona at him threateningly. “Try it and see what happens!”

“One, two, three, go!!” Jagged counted off rapidly, and the last thing I saw was his smiling face before he disappeared in a shimmer of light. The last pony I made eye contact with was Three Card who caught the white hot intensity of my anger.

I thought I heard the sound of faint galloping and wheeled around with my gun. “Wait! You can’t just- !” I shouted.

They were gone.

“You did…”

Cursing under my breath, I quickly tried to give chase, galloping after them, but a shot nearly hit me as soon as I sprung out into the open. Then another one struck near my hoof, and another one grazed my cheek and I quickly dived back behind my rock.

“He probably planned for it to happen this way too,” I muttered scornfully.

That open stretch of desert behind me was practically a killing field. Even if it was a straight shot to the canyon, the hunters had me pinned. Now I was alone. Solitary behind my cover. I looked around for an opening but there wasn’t one. I was almost completely surrounded.

“Damn that bastard…” I lamented. “I should’ve just killed him while I had the chance.”

Trying to think of a way out, slowly, I leaned outward and fired off another magazine to keep the bounty hunters at bay while glancing around.

My eyes darted around searching for my pegasus friend. “Dammit. Where the hell is that pegasus when I need him?” I spat. 

“He’s hiding behind that rock!” one of them called out. 

Wait, but I wasn’t a stallion. They must’ve thought I was Jagged Knife. Swearing internally, I imagined all of the ways I was going to kill that bastard as soon as I caught up to him. It didn’t help that I had my own bounty either.

I stared up at the noose hanging above me swaying in the wind and realized that I’d have to figure out a way out of this.

My attention turned towards another rock to my left and I saw a pathway using cover I could use to get closer and escape. If I could just make it to that rock at the end, then I could make a mad dash for it and lose these idiots in the canyon.

Just then, a shot ricocheted a little too close to my head for my liking, which caused me to grow more irritated.

Edging to the far side of the rock that was willing to provide me with a scrap of cover, I returned fire. “Dammit, I don’t have time for this.” I groaned. The longer I waited, the less chance I’d have of getting what I came for.

Looking around me, I couldn’t make out any signs of Hotshot anywhere. “Where’s that damned pegasus?” I moaned. He was supposed to be here to help me out in these types of situations. 

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the bounty hunters preparing to rush me.

Then a thought popped into my head. Most of the ponies were here for Jagged Knife and didn’t know what I looked like, right? It was worth a gamble.

“Screw this…” I grunted. Taking a deep breath, I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Everypony stop! Jagged Knife isn’t here anymore, so quit wasting your time!”

The firing died down a little, a few more shots followed until there was a pause in the action. Then one of the ponies called out to me “What do you mean Jagged isn’t there?! Don’t lie to us, we just saw him!” she asked in a droll. “You just want the bounty for yourself!” Then the shooting picked up again.

“I’m not lying dumbass!”

“Who’s this speaking?” they asked, pausing once again.

“Look you’ve got it all wrong!” I shouted back. “I’m, uh… nopony worth noting.”

“I find that difficult to believe… we were fighting until just a moment ago!”

“Uh, well, believe it!” I couldn’t exactly tell her who I was, so I made up a story that sounded good in my head. “I was going after that bounty too, but then you all started shooting at me! He probably gave us the slip. So how about you let up and go search somewhere else?”

“If you’re really not working for Jagged Knife, then throw out your weapons and surrender. I’ll hogtie you and take you back as a prisoner myself, and if your story checks out, we’ll let you go.” The mare called out.

That wasn’t going to happen. 

Another pony called out,  “Wait a minute, I know her! That’s the same mare who sold us out to the NCR! She’s got a bounty on her too!”

There was a short silence as I held my breath and heard muttering between them. After that, I heard the sound of guns cocking from behind the cover of my rock.

“I don’t want to fight you.” I called out to them, readying Winona just in case. I reached for a small stone off the ground and held it in my hoof, readying to sprint for it when they least expected.

She chuckled at me, their guns all cocking in unison. “Like you got a choice...”

They all probably had their rifles trained on my rock. Looking around, I muttered sarcastically, “Hey, Hotshot? Now would be a great time to start giving me some covering fire.” I was on my own it seemed.

Keeping my eyes locked on the closest cover in front of me, I lowered my stance getting ready to run.

That was when I heard the roar of machine-gun fire from nearby, but the shots weren’t aimed at me.

Instead the gunfire was coming from behind the first group of ponies. I heard shouting and they turned around to engage. “What the hell is going on?” I thought to myself.

Realizing this was my chance, I galloped for the next rock. One of them called out that I was making a break for it, but they were too busy fighting the new group of ponies to chase after.

I ran for the canyon as fast as I could. Jagged Knife was more important than these jokers. Unfortunately, there was another pony standing in my way. Some random stallion with a dual-action battle saddle equipped and a pair of rifles pointing right at me! 
 
“You’re not getting to that bounty before me!” yelled the newcomer, choosing me as his target by complete coincidence.

“Get real!” I snarled, ducking to the side of his line of fire, and threw a knockout punch, leaving the stallion unconscious on the ground.  “I don’t even give a shit about the bounty!” As I continued forward, I found myself thinking these guys were total pushovers.

But I stopped my advance as a larger group of bounty hunters stood in front of me, cutting off my escape.

Another pony quickly recognized me and pointed me out. “Hey! That’s the mare who sold us out to the NCR!” Repeating it loud enough that the others could hear.

Some mare was propping up an RPG to my flank. I yelped and wheeled around in the opposite direction back towards my original cover!

“Rubi sold you out! Not me!” I argued. Unfortunately, it made little difference.

I made a sprint for and dived behind the nearest rock, dodging more gunfire in the process. Grenades exploded behind me and bullets cracked. The RPG screeched through the air and exploded the rock ahead of me in a spray of debris, but thankfully, through the dust and confusion I managed to escape their sight.

I breathed. Okay, maybe they weren’t total pushovers. 

There were too many ponies standing in my way between me and my destination. Stray shots banked off my cover like rain as I finally got a second away from the bounty hunters.  I had to figure out a new plan to get to Jagged Knife. 

This was no good. I was going in the opposite direction of where I was trying to get to!  Keeping my mind focused on the canyon, most of my attempts to reach it were being thwarted by these annoying ponies obsessed over greed and an idiotic sense of revenge. Also the longer I fought here, the less chance I had of catching up to Jagged Knife! I could practically feel him slipping away from me. The mere thought of letting him get away after all this just angered me further.

“Who the hell are you?!” I heard a pony ask sitting beside me. 

Turning my head, I found myself sitting face to face with another stallion who was also using the same rock as me for cover. He was a red pony with a pick-axe for a cutie mark in a tattered old hat. 

He pointed accusingly, “Wait a minute! I know you! You’re that mare who disrespected the Mercenary’s Guild the other day!”

I rolled my eyes and threw a left hook into his face before he could turn his battle saddle, knocking him unconscious against the rock. Then I dragged his limp body behind cover next to me so he wouldn’t get shot.

Slowly, I peeked out to get an eye on the action again, and saw that more ponies had begun to arrive from the East and were searching for me as well. All of them trying to be the ones to get their hooves on that bounty.

That was when a well placed shot ricocheted right near my head. I thought it was a fluke at first, but a second equally well-placed shot almost hit me and forced me back behind cover.

“Okay, that one was way too accurate to be from one of those bounty hunters.” I thought to myself. So I grabbed the unconscious pony’s hat off the ground and held it out in the open.

Suddenly, a hole blew straight through the middle of it. Just as I thought. “Great, now I have some jerkoff sniper pinning me down.”

I managed to get a quick look and when I did I saw one of the ponies who was a regular patron at the Wrangler. It was Lone Hoof. The pretty-boy stallion smiled and waved at me with a tip of his hat, “No hard feelings, lil Senorita! I just can’t pass up a bounty that high!”

Growling in anger, I shouted back. “I’m gonna make you eat that stupid hat of yours- !”

Then I heard a thunk and looked down to see a small metallic object sitting beside me and my heart skipped a beat.

I scooped the grenade up as quickly as I could and threw it back out into the open. The rock shielded me from the explosion and I let out a breath of relief.

Gritting my teeth in anger, I came out from behind cover and fired Winona at Lone Hoof. The unicorn annoyingly retreated back behind his own rock and out of sight.

“She’s over here!” one of them called out.

The logical part of my brain was aware that they were all simply being tricked into going after a humongous pile of bottle caps, but in the heat of it I was beginning to lose what little patience I had left. Especially since they were all trying to kill me!

My ears perked up, hearing a strange noise coming towards me. They sounded like… “hoofsteps?”, but as they came closer they sounded more like heavy stomps.

“Yeehaw!” Cried the hulking wall of muscle of a minotaur as he smashed through my rocky cover with ease and I just barely managed to get out of the way. “It’s Wild Iroooon!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. 

Bringing myself to my hooves,I blew my mane out of my face and shouted, “You dorks are really starting to piss me off!!!”
 
There was another gunshot that followed, echoing in my eardrums and I felt a dull pain in my hoof. I saw Lone Hoof holding a smoking sniper rifle and I looked down through a gaping hole in my foreleg.

The searing pain came only a few moments later. I cried out grasping my bloody hoof, and stared through the wound in both horror and fascination as the burning subsided and it began to stitch itself back together, in slow, but real-time.

Lone Hoof had paused to watch for a moment as well, utterly captivated by the horrifying sight.

My mouth hung agape while the glowing spider-veins coalesced around the edges of the wound and then disappeared completely. This healing factor was no joke.

The opportunistic pony shook himself out of it, raising up his sniper rifle again. Glancing over my shoulder, the minotaur had been watching as well and was now preparing another charge, scraping his hoof over the dirt.

Side-stepping the charge easily, I heard another shot, but this one came from further away. A soft crack of lead against wood, and some of the firing stopped. Glancing over my shoulder again, I saw that Lone Hoof was examining his now-busted sniper rifle in confusion. The unicorn stallion muttered in annoyance, tossing his junked sniper rifle on the ground.

I looked around more but didn’t see anypony. “Hotshot?” I asked out loud, but couldn’t find the pegasus anywhere. Grunting, I began to run again.

Immediately Lone Hoof pulled out a much larger anti-machine rifle from underneath his duster. Levitating the weapon up at me with his magic. My ears fell flat.

“That was my favorite gun…,” he growled.

He pulled back on the charging handle and squeezed the trigger as I made a dash for cover, causing a thunderous blast to erupt from the end of the barrel. Its massive recoil caused it to miss, but I felt the wind pressure go by my face. Another pony who had been standing directly behind me wasn’t quite so lucky. What was left of them exploded in a shower of meat. He was using explosive-tipped rounds!

A vein popped out the side of Wild Iron’s neck as he looked at the eviscerated pony corpse now missing its upper half. “Hey, Lone Hoof!” he mooed angrily. “Watch where you’re shooting that damn thing!”

“Don’t be like that! I got here first, fair and square, Wild Iron!” Lone Hoof argued.

“Well I got here second!”

“Pardon me, my bovine compadre, but that doesn’t make any sense!”

While they were distracted, I thought this was my chance and made a run for it. On any other day I’d be happy to take them on, but I had a previous date arrangement. 

Weaving between the rocks, Lone Hoof shot another explosive-tipped round and exploded another one of the outcroppings. I heard their voices getting further away, calling out for my blood from elsewhere.

“She’s getting away!” Wild Iron shouted after losing sight of me. 

I had a straight shot to the canyon. So I took it. As I rounded another rocky cover though, I saw more ponies standing in my way, with their guns pointing right at me.

“I don’t want to fight you...” I growled, hoping they’d stand aside, but ready for a fight. They didn’t seem too interested in talking things out.

Instead a single bullet zipped by me from one of the ponies. I felt the sting of hot lead graze my flesh and I finally lost my temper. “Fuckit,” I thought and immediately shot the bounty hunter who fired it dead. 

He became nothing but a smear of red in the desert as the other ponies around him looked startled. Before I could do anything else, my wasteland instinct had already taken over.

I threw myself at the group of ponies through the hail of bullets. A rocket propelled grenade veered off and exploded somewhere behind me as I threw a swift uppercut to the RPG mare’s chin, and snapped her neck with a sickening crack. Turning over, I threw a left hook at the pony on my right and sent the stallion’s body toppling backwards with a concussion .

Some yellow stallion in a cowpony hat attempted to swing a shovel at me and hit me in the back of my head. Slowly, I turned my glare on him, shrugging it off. He looked horrified, like I was more monster than pony, before I busted his snout within a few inches of his life. 

Seeing nothing but red, I lost track of what I was doing in the heat of the moment.

Until all of a sudden, the wind was knocked out of me. I hit the ground in an instant feeling a pain in my chest. A mare wielding a shotgun snuck up and blasted me with flechette rounds while I was distracted. I breathed heavy painful breaths, until my lungs came back to me. Then the pain began to dull.

The other ponies watched in horror as I found my footing again and raised myself up like it was nothing. My healing factor doing its work. Luckily my armor had blunted the force slightly and I had probably drank so much of that rad-water that my healing factor was in overdrive.

“Get the hell out of here if you don’t want to die!” I yelled, holding up Winona like I was the grim pony reaper. They were pointing their weapons at me in fear of me, like I was some kind of monster. Groaning to myself, I prayed that they’d leave me alone already so that I wouldn’t have to fight all of them.

They started to back off a little, looking at the pile of pony corpses I’d just created. That’s when I came to and realized what I had just done. I stopped and stared at my bloodied hoof wraps unsure of what to make of them. These were just normal townsfolk. What was I?

That’s when I heard the deafening roar of auto cannons.

I turned to look to see what was happening only to find the Steel Rangers had shown up and immediately began raining hell. Blasting other ponies in the crossfire with no concern for casualties. The power armored rangers had just arrived and began mowing down other ponies indiscriminately.

“Shoot. They’re here too?” 

They must’ve been here for the bounty. Or at least the technology, judging from how many weapons were left on top of corpses. It was almost like they were trying to kill them.

As I watched bodies being ripped apart by huge twenty millimeter rounds, most of the other ponies had already begun to turn tail and ran, leaving their weapons behind. The ponies around me got spooked as well and ran away as fast as they could.

“Oh, now you take my advice...”

At this point, there was nopony else around. I had my chance to escape. The rangers still hadn’t noticed me and the only ponies left were the sort you’d want to avoid even if you didn’t have a bounty on your head.  Glancing sideways, I did have a straight shot to the canyon, but I began to feel more anger inside me the longer I watched.

I cursed and began to gallop in the opposite direction. Instead deciding to head directly towards the Steel Rangers.

I threw a rock at one of their helmets to get their attention. “Hey, I’m the one you’re after! Right?!” I yelled. “Fight me instead!” 

They stopped firing and turned to face me. It didn’t take them long to realize who I was.

“Heh, well if it isn’t the NCR bitch!” laughed the steel-clad pony. I heard her speak into her communicator, “Paladin Brunswick, let Senior Paladin Bombshell know immediately.”

I put on a cocky grin “What’s the matter? Don’t you steel-assholes want a piece of me too?” I asked.

“We only came to Dodge so that we could collect enough guns and ammo to rebuild our Steel Ranger chapter,” she revealed. “This bounty’ll go a long way for us. Bombshell wanted to deal with you herself. She figured you’d show up if we started blasting ponies at random.”

“Too much of a scaredy-pony to face me herself?” I mocked. The mare laughed from behind her helmet.

Then I heard a bleep from their helmets that told me their auto-cannons had locked onto me. Thinking quick, I rushed forward and leaped, latching onto the ranger’s helmet, and I hocked the biggest loogie I could onto her visor.

She bucked around wildly in disgust, trying to shake me off, while her fellow rangers tried to figure out what to do. “Blegghh! Degenerate tribal!” Meanwhile I clung on for dear life as her autocannons blazed. If I was between both of her guns then she couldn’t blast me to smithereens.

I leaned back and threw a punch as hard as I could against her metal helmet. She looked disoriented and stumbled, almost losing her balance.

My hoof felt totally numb afterwards, but it was worth it. I let go and landed in range of their auto-cannons. Though she had failed to notice the pair of grenades I had slipped underneath her battle saddle.

The mare shook her head, and reloaded her autocannons, which caused the whole thing along with her stock of explosive rounds to detonate.

I grinned, holding the pulled grenade pins in my teeth and spat them out. “Yeah, you’re not gonna want to do that.” Thankfully for her, her power armor kept her alive after the blast.

The other rangers pointed their artillery-toting battle saddles right at me in response, but I just whipped out the compliance regulator Hawkins had given me. I fired the blue magic beam at both of them, causing their mechanized armor suits to suddenly power off lifelessly. They looked surprised, as they struggled inside their useless metal containers and I was able to push them over with ease.

“Y-You’re going to pay for this!” the ranger promised, fruitlessly trying to move inside her steel suit. 

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I laughed, easily side-stepping out of the way of the minotaur who was attempting to charge me from behind. Wild Iron tripped over my foreleg and barreled on top of the remaining rangers by mistake. I could hear him coming from a mile away. They all laid toppled over each other, together in a big groaning pile.

“Wow, I should’ve just used this thing from the get-go.” I marveled to myself. Giving it a smooch, I then stuck it back inside my saddle bag before heading off.

I leaned down and whispered into the mare’s ear before turning away. “Just so you know, if I actually wanted to kill you, I would’ve. Don’t piss me off again.” I threatened, and I heard her groan inside her helmet.

An explosion from Lone Hoof’s anti-machine rifle burst one of the rocky outcroppings behind me as he loaded another round.

Glancing back at the canyon, I realized it was now or never and made a run for it.

Emptying a magazine of rounds in his direction, I forced the bastard to retreat behind cover again, then continued to gallop towards the canyon. My hooves pushed over the sand as I attempted to zigzag, feeling totally useless. So I kept running, bracing for an impact that never came. 

There was another shot that came from further away, and when I turned around again, I saw the gun-obsessed unicorn examining his busted anti-machine rifle in anger, throwing his hat on the ground.

My gaze slowly raised upwards and saw a solitary cloud sitting above the fray, where the mohawked pegasus was watching from and he gave me a salute. “Gee, you couldn’t be any less subtle?” I thought, raising an eyebrow. 

He shrugged as if he could read my mind, signalling with hoof signs that we’d rendezvous on the other side of the canyon, then took flight.

I came to a halt and stuck my tongue out in defiance at Dodge City as I finally made it to safety, feeling a sense of victory. 

Then I looked down at myself and saw my hooves covered in blood, feeling an uneasy feeling in my stomach. As I looked back again to my surprise, nopony else was even attempting to follow me. Instead, I was hearing gunshots in the distance. Though they sounded more like echoes from this far away.

“What the hell is going on here?” I huffed out loud. 

Squinting my eyes, I saw a group of ponies I didn’t recognize fighting the Dodge City Gang. Were they bounty hunters? They didn’t look like bounty hunters.  I could barely tell who was fighting who at this point. Something else was clearly going on. Though it was difficult to tell what. I didn’t need to repeat my suspicions out loud.

Mutant buzzards were beginning to fly circles overhead, giving off their distinct buzzing call as they eagerly awaited their next meal.

I stood still for a moment longer, before entering into the snaking canyon.





The entrance had patches of exploding cacti all around it so I had to step carefully. If you got hit by one of those things you’d be pulling needles out of your you-know-where for a week.

Inside, its high canyon walls provided shelter from the hot sun and a moment to rest, but I was still strictly on edge.

My eyes darted around every corner, looking for ambushes or the faint shimmers of stealthbuck invisibility.

“Hello?” I called out.

I was alone in here after all. Except for the salamanders which were crawling all throughout the canyon. They were behind rocks and scurried into each and every crack. There was probably a nest somewhere nearby.

“Hellooo...?” I called out again. Again, no one answered. I kicked the dirt and my temper started to grow hot, thinking that he probably ditched me after all that. “I knew it. All he needed me for was a distraction.” I cursed. I was beginning to suspect that there were never any Enclave either, and he had just taken me for a ride.

Scolding myself for being so stupid, I imagined what my brother would’ve said. Then I stopped as I felt a tingle along my spine and heard rocks shift behind me. I spun around pointing Winona.

“Who is it?!” I snarled. “Jagged is that you? I’m gonna kick your goat-faced ass for pulling that shit back there!”

Instead a grey pony dragged his hooves out of the shadows from where he was hiding, but it was not the pony I was expecting. Instead it looked like that sad sack I met at the bar. He came out from behind the rock and slumped over.

“Aw… I was going to jump out and ambush you.” he moped. “I had it all planned out too. Thought this was finally my chance...”

Immediately, I calmed down and lowered my guard upon realizing he was nopony special. “Oh it’s just you. What was your name again?”

“It’s Down Luck…” he moped. “I just thought that maybe if I could get that bounty and I’d be able to pay off my debt.”

This was incredibly awkward. I almost wished that he had been a crazed raider trying to kill me. Or at least that he’d leave somewhere else.

“Hey, I get it.” I sighed. “Trust me though, it ain’t worth dying over. Go home.”

“Yeah, you’re right…,” he agreed, turning away hopelessly. I watched him dragging his hooves past me, but then he stopped and I saw him reach for something. The pony had a sly glint in his eye. “Or…” he began.

He spun around gripping a kitchen knife in his mouth and lunged at me.

“I could just kill you and get those fifty thousand bottle caps for myself!” he shouted.

Stopping him, I held him back easily with my foreleg. Close up, I could see a glint of madness and a crazed look in his eyes as he desperately tried to reach me with the knife. 

Even though he was a full grown stallion, he was hilariously weak. The knife itself probably wasn’t all that dangerous for me, but I tried to reason with him anyways. 

“Woah! Hey, I don’t want to have to hurt you!” I warned.

He struggled in vain to push forward and thrust the knife into my neck, grunting in futility. “I want that bounty! As soon as I kill you… I’ll- !”

“Think of your family,” I said, trying to get through to him, continuing to hold him back with little to no effort on my part. “They wouldn’t want you to get yourself killed over bottle caps!”

He stopped pushing and cocked his head in confusion, then laughed, “Fuck those little free loaders! They can die for all I care!”

Those words caught me off guard and I slipped. Stunned and wide-eyed, my mouth hung open as the knife cut the side of my throat. He threw me off and pinned me to the ground laughing with glee as he stood over me. He tried to stab me again, but I blocked it with my foreleg.

“Y-You really don’t care about your family at all?” I asked.

“Who the hell cares?!” he laughed. “I’m gonna be rich!”

Suddenly there was a gunshot and the pony slumped over lifelessly with a fresh bullet hole in his brain pan. I sat watching the pool of blood that wasn’t my own collecting near me, somewhat shaken. Then I looked up to see Three Card holding a small pocket pistol in his mouth, which he slipped back underneath his vest.

I stood up quickly, somewhat shaken. Then I glared at the pony standing silently in front of me. “Y-You didn’t have to do that,” I said, regaining my composure. “I could’ve handled him on my own.”

“You were sloppy. Let him get the better of you,” he chided back. “Jagged Knife will be a lot more cunning. Kill or be killed. Have you forgotten already? That’s how it always was in the wasteland.” 

“I would’ve been fine...”

The pony looked down at my healing wounds surrounded by green spider-veins in disgust and asked. “Is that normal?”

“Like I said, I’m fine.” I scoffed. My wounds were healing, but slower than before. So I pulled out one of the dirty bottles of rad-water and downed it. It didn’t go down well, but it did its job. “What are you doing here anyways?” I asked.

“You were taking too long. Why didn’t you just kill him when you had the chance?”

Of course that would be his response. “Not my fault I got caught up back there.” I snorted, “What the hell is your problem?”

The usually stoic pony looked rather annoyed this time as he pushed me back against the wall. He held me up so that we were staring face to face and demanded to know. “Why didn’t you kill Jagged when you had the chance? How many damned times are you going to let him take advantage of you before you get wise you stupid mare? I’m tired of putting up with your sorry flank just because Angel chose you for the plan.”

“W-What?” I sputtered, “I was gonna before those bounty hunters got in my way! I just needed to know a few things first. What do you care how I deal with him?”

He rolled his eyes and let go of me, shaking his head.

“You aren’t still pissed off that I royally kicked your butt that one time?” I snarked, which he didn’t really appreciate.

Instead, Three Card only grew more irritated. “Don’t you get it? We’re only in this situation together because you can’t seem to do what needs to be done,” he growled. “So quit with the damn pleasantries and kill Jagged Knife already.”

“First you don’t speak at all, and now you think you can order me around?” I challenged. “If you have a problem with my style of assassination, then why don’t you do it yourself?”

He muttered to himself out loud, “I can’t believe Angel chose an idiot like you for this. I’ve said it before: That marefriend of yours would’ve been a much better choice. She’s way more reliable.”

“S-She’s not my marefriend.” I blushed, quickly changing the subject past it. “And I’m not particularly thrilled about it either.” Then I looked around, asking, “Hey, where is Angel Eyes anyways? Have you seen him?”

Three Card let out an exasperated grunt, but I noticed he didn’t answer my question, so I assumed the worst. “Any other situation, and we wouldn't be speaking. But since I’m stuck working with you, I don’t have any other options. Our only chance going forward is for us to cooperate.”

My eyes narrowed on the raider. “Why should I even trust you?” I asked.

“Because I promised Sunny Hymn that I would protect you.”

“Protec- ?” I sputtered, my face blushing a deeper red. Sunny was reliable. I trusted her call more than anyone else’s. Though I was getting the annoying feeling that my accomplishments up to now weren’t being given proper acknowledgement. “Fine. What do you want already?” I snorted.

“I’m here to warn you,” he revealed. “This job isn’t a meeting with our suppliers. It’s a gathering. He just wanted to get you alone.”

“Give me a little credit. I brought backup….”

“Well that’s something. And I trust that you’ve got a way to deal with Jagged too?”

Giving a small nod in affirmation, I took out the compliance regulator Hawkins had given me. After allowing him to observe it briefly, I hid the weapon back underneath my jacket for easy access.

I had already figured that out by this point. To think that I had come all this way for nothing. Though that particular detail took me by surprise... “What does he want me alone for?” I asked, taken aback by that little revelation.

“I don’t know, but he’s been interested in you since you came to Dodge City. Couldn’t fathom why. He wouldn’t tell us the reason. Strangeness always seems to surround you, mare. Either way this is good. We can use it to our advantage.”

Even so, I was still a little skeptical if there was even a point to all this. “Literally everypony everywhere wants him dead. It’s not like he’ll be able to do anything.”

“Rubi’s underestimating Jagged Knife,” he answered. “She thinks she’s holding all of the cards. That’s her weakness. Jagged managed to get one of the Dodge City gangs to secretly back his coup.”

Somehow, that revelation wasn’t too shocking. News to me, but none-the-less unsurprising. Though I shouldn’t have been too surprised he couldn’t have pulled this off entirely on his own. “Okay then, what’s he after?” I asked. “What’s the point? If the NCR gets involved, it’s inevitable that he’s gonna fail.”

“He doesn’t know any other way to live. He might claim to want retirement, but that word means something entirely different to him. Jagged has become nothing but a rabid dog. Those ponies think they can use him to gain power, but it won’t work.”

“Then why are you helping me? And why go through all of this trouble instead of simply killing him yourself?”

His answer didn’t give me much. He just muttered, “I have my reasons…. Let’s just say that unlike some, I actually honor the old ways,” he answered, growing annoyed by my questions.

Old ways. New ways. His answer meant nothing to me. I muttered something to myself that he clearly didn’t appreciate. “Before we go further, tell me everything!” I stomped my hoof insistently. “Or else!”

He checked over his shoulder again for the third time, “The longer we take here the more suspicious Jagged will get.” he warned.

I didn’t care. I was so tired of being given the runaround, and dying to finally get some answers.

The white pony grunted in irritation. “Fine. We dealt with Papa. The Smokey Mountains are his territory, after all. That’s where the weapons are from, but they came from a place hidden deep near their peak. Sometimes Jagged spoke with a snooty unicorn, and that’s how he acquired them. We had to do some things we weren’t proud of to escape because of what Jagged did. Dunno about any Enclave though. Satisfied yet?” he snorted.

“No. Why would he go through all this trouble? What’s he planning to do?!”

He couldn’t tell me anything beyond that. Apparently Jagged had always played things annoyingly close to the chest, but especially so since Edgy left the gang. He had real trust issues apparently. Just my luck.

Still dissatisfied, I continued to press the issue. “I saw Vertibucks though!” I insisted. “I know I wasn’t seeing things. So tell me what’s so special about that place. You owe me.”

Three Card stood his ground that time. “I don’t owe you a damn thing, mare,” he said. “You made that deal with Angel. Not with me. Thus, I’ve got no obligations to honor it. As far as I’m concerned, they disappeared after Cauterize. You want to go chasing ghosts? Fine. Do it on your own damn time. This is about here and now.”

I scoffed.

“Enough of this. Now I’m done answering your questions. If you want more then you can ask him yourself.”

It appeared that I wasn’t getting anything else, so I agreed reluctantly to follow his plan.

“He’s going to take us to Boot Hill where the meeting is being held, and he’ll ask you to join up with him there. If you refuse, he’ll try to kill you. Wait for that moment when I create a distraction. That’ll be your chance. Some unnamed ponies have a lot riding on this, but if you stop him here, then everything falls apart. Nopony else has to get hurt.”

“And she’ll be safe too?”

He nodded. “You have my word. Though I think you’ll find that she can take care of herself on her own.”

Of course, I didn’t need him to remind me of that fact.

I motioned towards Winona, feeling a little cocky. “Well I think Jagged’s gonna get a lot more than he bargained for,” I laughed.

“Do you always act this nonchalant?” he grunted. “This is a dangerous job.”

My eyes narrowed on the pony. “Look I’m not stupid. I’ll do what needs to be done, okay?”

“Good. Just stick to the plan and there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Yeah…,” I muttered. “Got it.”

Then as he began to turn away,  he looked to be contemplating something else in his head and turned back around. “By the way… I’m not sure if it’s worth mentioning, but I know you’ve been hanging around with that Hotshot character. Dunno what sort of relationship you two have, but word of advice? I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.”

I wasn’t expecting him to say that, but I quickly snapped back without even having to think about it. “You’re wrong about him!” I argued. “He might be ex-Enclave, but I’d trust him over you any day of the week!”

The raider trotted ahead, shaking his head dismissively. “Think what you want.” I heard him say.

“And how do I know you’re not lying to me right now?” I asked accusingly. “We’re not exactly friends!”

The pony answered simply with. “Because your friend Sunny asked me to. Our goals align, even if we have different reasons.”

I gave another dismissive snort and nodded.

“I’ll leave first. Wait a few minutes, then follow.” he ordered.

Three Card began to trot out of the canyon, but before he flicked his stealthbuck on, he stopped and looked at me again. Then he muttered, “She’s too good for you.” and went invisible. I heard his hoofsteps getting further away.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I scoffed, and that was the end of the conversation.

I hated waiting. 

It always made me feel antsy. Tapping my hoof, I waited impatiently until I got tired of counting in my head and followed him out.

Although I still wasn’t sure if I was ready to trust this pony, I did trust Sunny Hymn. This was getting to be too much though. I was considering if I should just shoot the bastard dead the next time I saw him and his stupid goatee.

I came out of the snaking canyon on the other side, looking around both ways for Jagged Knife. Dodge City was in the distance. Something was clearly going on. It looked like Three Card was telling the truth.

I was beginning to get an idea in my head. If I could just hit him with the compliance regulator, I could force Jagged Knife to answer all of my questions, then kill him.

That was when a huge twenty millimeter shell blasted the rocky canyon wall. Falling rocks and debris fell from overhead and I dived out of the way just in time, only to be greeted by more autocannon fire.

“An Ambush?! Shit!” I thought, looking back. That rock had just barely missed flattening me into a pancake.

I glanced sideways and saw the metallic sheen off a suit of power armor, hearing an annoyingly familiar laugh coming from behind the suit’s rebreather. “Well, well, well... looks like it’s our lucky day today. If it isn’t the NCR bitch again!” Bombshell laughed. “Thought you could get away from me and my rangers, didn’t you?”

It was the Steel Rangers again.

“Oh, great.” I rolled my eyes in exasperation. A quick glance around, and I could see they had formed a perimeter around the outside of the canyon to prevent me from escaping. Dealing with ponies trained in military tactics was always a pain in the ass. “Could we do this some other time?” I asked her. “I’ve got somewhere to be today.” 

“Not on your life!” she snarled, with Bombshell and the rest of her cronies opening fire with a shelling bombardment.

I dodged more explosive shells and debris, galloping behind a small boulder that worked as cover. I switched Winona to armor piercing rounds, but they did me little good. Their armor seemed to be of higher quality than your average Steel Ranger as my bullets banked off uselessly.

Tossing my last grenade at her, it landed near her hooves. A direct hit, but to no effect. I cursed.

“Okay, I could really use some help about now...” I grunted.

Her squad of rangers concentrated their fire and the rock finally exploded. I felt the wind knocked out of me from the artillery shell going off too close and I blacked out for a second. When I woke up, I was on the ground, feeling the shrapnel damage from the explosion slowly healing itself.

Bombshell approached me, laughing under her breath while she ordered her fellow rangers to stand down. I tried to push myself up and aim Winona at her again, amazing even myself at my body’s resilience, but she put her steel-clad hoof on top of me

She leaned down so that I could see my reflection in her visor. “Did you really think you could cross the Steel Rangers and get away with it, NCR?” she mocked.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you steel-assholes to quit living in the past?” I huffed, still feeling pain in my chest. It hurt to chuckle.

“Plenty of times,” she laughed back, “but it’s difficult to argue when you have this sort of firepower. Oh well, guess you get to die for nothing then.”

“And for the last damn time, I’m not NCR!” I reached inside my jacket and whipped out the compliance regulator before Bombshell realized what it was. By the time she did, I had already fired the blue beam of energy at her, and it was too late- wait no. I had expected her power armor matrix to shut down completely and leave her locked in place, but she was completely unaffected.

Instead, Bombshell laughed and knocked the weapon from my grip, pushing down harder with her power armored hoof. “Never seen tech like this before,” she admired. “Pretty dangerous. Though tribals like you shouldn’t go around using this sort of technology.”

Sparks flew as she crushed it under hoof, leaving only a worthless pile of scraps and broken focusing gems. My face made a grimace looking at my junked compliance regulator

“Cute, but you should know that I had the scribe nerds from my old chapter make some special modifications to my T-51b,” she boasted. “My power armor is completely immune to matrix disrupting attacks!” Suddenly, I was staring down the barrel of her twenty millimeter autocannon. 

“Any last words?” she asked, leaning down close to me.

I snorted and threw a punch at her helmet as hard as I could. The blow was so hard it made her reel back slightly, and my hoof was buzzing with numbness afterwards from punching solid metal, but it was worth it.

She was dazed for a moment, but quickly shook herself to her senses. “Holy fucking Celestia, I actually fucking felt that inside my helmet!” she laughed, “I’ll be sure to remember that one.” Bombshell lowered her cannon and I heard a blip, indicating her auto-cannons were locked on. 

I hoped that I made her nose bleed.

“Say hi to the princesses for me,” she said.

Suddenly a shot from a sniper rifle cracked in the distance and downed one of Bombshell’s rangers. She turned her head towards the origin of the shots as the others tried in desperation to locate the sniper and a second round hit her dead on, but deflected off her superior armor.

Good timing. I hadn’t realized Hotshot was so deadly-accurate.

While they were trying to locate him, there was a second gunshot, but not a deafening roar from an auto cannon or the crack from a sniper rifle. Instead it came from a smaller caliber pistol and Bombshell suddenly stopped moving.

I looked around in confusion and saw Jagged Knife standing behind us, holding a smoking gun. He was wearing a wicked smile, and was flanked by both Sting, Three Card, and the others.

Then I looked back at Bombshell again, who was standing oddly still in place. I attempted to more closely examine the mare’s helmet, and to my surprise, I didn’t see a single bullet hole. It remained in perfect condition.

“Bypass bullet. Ignores armor completely,” he said, as if to answer the question on my mind, as well as anyone else who was wondering. “The ammo for this thing is extremely limited, so I usually don’t like to use it in a fight, but I figured today being so special… ‘Hey, I might as well’.”

He and the other raiders took aim at the remaining Rangers, who were now outgunned. The pony that Hotshot had downed originally, struggled to his hooves, still alive but with a bloody bullet-sized hole in their power armor. They muttered between themselves contemplating what they should do. Probably shaken up from seeing their leader so casually offed like that, they elected to run away. 

Jagged watched them as they galloped off. “Live to fight another day…,” he mused.

Blood began to seep out of Bombshell’s helmet, as it pooled up in the sealing around her neck.

More surprising still, the gun Jagged Knife was holding in his telekinesis was actually one that I recognized. There was no mistaking it. I’d recognize that sleek steel gem-inlaid pistol anywhere from when I was a filly. It was Radar’s!

I freed myself from the dead mare’s grip and stared at his weapon in total silence.

Jagged noticed me watching and began to approach. Slipping it back inside his jacket, I got to my hooves and pointed Winona straight at him, praying to Luna in my head that he didn’t notice the sniper during all of that.

The others were quick to pull up their arms in response, but Jagged told them to stand down. “Lay down your weapons, boys. This is between me and the mare.” he sighed. His eyes flicked down over my bloody hooves, and he said, “I have to admit, I’m disappointed...”

“Screw you! What was the deal, ditching me like that?” I snarled.

“Hardly my fault that you came unprepared. Blame Rubi, if you want,” he replied. Looking down at my bloodstained hooves, he smiled. “I got to see a little bit of your fight before I high-tailed it out of there. You’re quite the combatant, aren’t you?”

“I thought that you wanted me for a job. Not fighting off bounty hunters…,” I said. Something in the back of my head was telling me that I should just pull the trigger right then and there.

“When I asked you to come along that was implied as part of the job description. What did you think you’d be doing out here? Besides, a few bounty hunters should be no problem for you.”

I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. I asked him to quit wasting my time.

“Of course,” he chuckled. “Look at it this way though, we all made it out of that mess alive. Now that it’s over, how about we head over to the meeting spot while Rubi is distracted? I’ll tell you anything you want to know on the way there.” he offered.

Glancing back towards the town, and then at Three Card. I was still able to think rationally. Those weapons were still a danger. It also seemed Jagged Knife didn’t happen to notice the sniper in the background of my last fight with the Steel Rangers. So luck hadn’t completely abandoned me.

A scope glint passed over my eye as I looked back towards the town. Probably Hotshot, letting me know he still had my back. I didn’t take as much comfort from that as I thought I would. 

Hearing more gunshots coming from back towards town also didn’t give me a good feeling, but I trusted Sunny Hymn enough to make the right call if the situation fell on her.

“Shall we?” he offered, extending his outstretched hoof.

This was a bad idea. I knew it. Even so, there was a part of me that wanted to hear him out. I had to know about the Enclave. 

Making a quick glance at Three Card who was hiding in the back, he gave me a subtle nod. I decided to stick to his plan for the time being. “Fine,” I agreed, and began to walk ahead. “Let’s get this over with.”

One of the other ponies was glaring at me. “Are you sure we can trust her?” he asked his boss.

Jagged Knife replied with smiling assurance. “Believe me, the things this mare’s accomplished hasn’t all been just dumb luck.”

A spritebot bobbing up and down passed by, playing its familiar polka track over the eerie silence between all of us. Jagged whipped out his gun and shot it down without looking, making it explode in a shower of sparks. “After you, Red.”





Accompanying the raiders out into the middle of the desert wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time. If my sister were still alive she would’ve lectured me for hours over what a stupid idea this was, but she wasn’t here right now.

Occasionally I’d look over my shoulder, back towards the town getting smaller and smaller as we got further into the badlands. As the singular SPP tower that overlooked Dodge shrunk into the distance, it seemed to represent civilization itself getting further away.

The trudge out to Boot Hill took longer than anypony in their right mind could possibly find comfort in. Usually it took only an hour or so to make it there by hoof, but the minutes seemed to drag on and on here. I always had a hard time staying in one place, but this walk was killing me. If I galloped, I thought, I probably could’ve made it in a quarter of the time.

For the last few minutes, I had kept mostly silent. Mostly thinking of how I was going to kill him at the end of this. And the more I thought about it, the more it made my blood boil.

Jagged led the way, with me trotting nearly beside him. Sting followed closely behind to keep an eye on me, while the other two kept watch on the horizon for threats. Three Card followed in the back, sticking to the plan. He’d help out when the time was right.

Meanwhile, the occasional scope glint from Hotshot was the only other indication that I wasn’t completely alone out here.

What Three Card said to me before we left was suddenly a worry. Before this whole thing started, I told Hotshot that I trusted him. “C’mon, are you really going to take a raider’s word over his?” I thought, scolding myself, but I silently promised myself that I’d pry more into his past after I got back.

With the wind blowing through my mane, this part of the San Palomino was looking a lot more like the wasteland I remembered. I felt a soft desert breeze blowing across my face. Looking out into the vast emptiness, it was almost like it was calling to me.

Then I noticed one of the raiders staring at me with some form of contempt.

“What are you looking at, molerat breath?” I asked.

“It’s Shiv, you dumb bitch,” he sneered, “and you killed my friend.”

I asked him what he was talking about, and he hatefully reminded me. 

“No Dice? Back at the caravan raid? You broke his neck.”

“Oh yeah?” I replied dismissively much to the stallion’s irritation. “Well you killed Cottontail.”

The stallion got annoyed, but Jagged casually reprimanded his subordinate. I could hear Sting constantly snickering behind him. It was getting annoying.

“Hey, Red,” Jagged repeated again. I’d zoned out there for a moment.

“Yeah?”

“I said to watch out for rad spots. Certain places out here will kill you in an instant if you stay still for too long.”

I scoffed. “You don’t need to tell me twice.”

He smiled. “By the way, I also liked the look in your eyes back there.”

“Just shut up, and trot….”

We continued further into the desert, surrounded by emptiness on nearly all sides, but something caught my attention. We fell silent as we spotted a desiccated white corpse of something white, fleshy, and vaguely pony shaped lying in the sand. It had tendrils of melted flesh and half-formed body parts.

I had never seen anything like it before. I nearly stopped to look at it out of disgust and curiosity. Turning my head as we passed whatever-it-was, I continued to stare at it. The others barely gave it a passing look, but Jagged noticed me staring at it.

“Sometimes these things wander in from the desert,” Jagged revealed. “No idea what they are or where they come from, but most often they end up dying on their own. If they don’t get shot by other ponies first, that is.” 

“I see…,” I acknowledged, realizing that must’ve been a pretty pained existence.

“Figured you’d be a lot more chatty, Red.” Jagged mentioned. “Weren’t there things you wanted to know?”

Oh. Right. I had been caught up in my own head this whole time that I almost forgot. They might’ve found that slightly suspicious. 

Sting snickered again to himself, but this time drew a glare from me.

“Uh, yeah… so where’d you get that gun?” I asked, motioning at the pistol tucked away in his jacket.

Jagged smiled. “Oh, you mean, Radar’s?” he asked, pulling it out and admiring its sleek design in the sunlight. “When I heard the old pegasus bit the big one, I wanted to make sure I had something to remember him by.”

Yeah, right. I imagined he probably had to kill someone else to get his hooves on it. “You knew him too?” I asked. “So you said before.”

The pony looked back, flashing his ice cold eyes and smiled at me. “Course I did, Red,” he told me. “I knew him all too well. After all, he killed my family.”

That caught me off guard a little. “...You’re lying,” I said flatly.

Jagged Knife chuckled to himself. “Oh it’s true alright. Take it from me, it wasn’t all heroics and hot bedded mares with that old stallion. Some of the things Radar did back in his day were downright war crimes. But hey, when you grow up in a place like the Enclave, what do you expect?”

“You’re a raider, so you’re one to talk.” I spat angrily. Jagged Knife could’ve been saying it just to mess with me for all I knew.

He gave an annoying grin, able to see that it bothered me. Though this conversation made me realize that I really had no idea who Radar was in the past at all. All I had was a personal story of mine and hearsay to go off of.

“While we’re on the topic, why don’t you tell me everything you know about the Enclave. That was part of the deal, remember?” I demanded, causing Jagged’s eyes to light up.

“Ah, yes, the Enclave. How could I forget?” He said, mock-smacking his hoof on his head. “That’s quite the story, kid. See, back in my early raider days, bout’ twenty-some years ago, I ended up rolling with a crew fifty strong. Led by a mean ole bastard of a stallion by the name of Fester. You might remember him. We were all hired together by the Enclave to do a job.”

“Yeah, I remember.” I said with a scoff. I had gotten the radiation poisoning and impromptu surgery from him as a parting gift in the Rot. “That’s weird though. I thought the Enclave avoided the surface like the plague.” I said.

“Odd was written all over that job. They didn’t behave like your typical Enclavers either. Enclave law typically dictates they stay above the clouds. Control their population, and all that. Thing is, unless you have High Council approval, there aren’t too many situations where you’re going to be going down there as a pegasus. With there being only a few notable exceptions. You’d need special authorization in that case, meaning it was probably spec-ops.”

“Weird...” I admitted, though I became curious.

Jagged Knife continued, “The job was to kill a certain pegasus and take back what he stole since it was the ‘sole property’ of the Enclave. So naturally, we were all thinking of stealing it for ourselves.”

“Naturally,” I grunted. “Did it have anything to do with that device I was sent to retrieve from the Rot?”

“This?” Levitating out the strange looking chip-device, he observed it closely, before sticking it back in his jacket pocket. “I just needed it back from that crazy old ghoul.”

“And the Enclave?” I asked, trying to force him back on topic.

“The job, of course, didn’t quite turn out how we were expecting it to go. Radar set off a localized balefire bomb and most of us got caught in the blast. I escaped, but it was a lesson to my younger self to never underestimate him. Yup. A lot of my brothers died on that job, or worse…”

As he talked, a thought sprung up in my head. Didn’t Hawkins mention something about the Enclave being relatively active on the surface twenty years ago? I wondered if maybe she or the NCR or maybe someone else knew something about this.

“Didn’t bother finishing us off. The way I figured it, maybe they assumed we wouldn’t know what to do with it, even if we did get our hooves on the prize.”

I responded with mock-sympathy. “My heart weeps for you, really.” 

“Easier, not to think about it, eh Girly? Not having to think of raiders as ponies too?” Sting mocked.

“What do you care? You’re raiders.”

“Now, now, Sting. No need to get nasty. You wouldn’t want to stoop to her level, would you?” Jagged chided playfully.

I scoffed.

The raider boss continued with his story. “That was how I first met Radar. What got me interested in following in his hoofsteps in the first place. Since he’s been all over the wasteland he knew all of its secrets, and those jobs with connections to the old geezer always tended to yield better results than others. That and a lil bit of desire for revenge. Maybe, there’s some database somewhere that could tell you more, but as for me, I never figured it out. I’ve moved on.”

“Have you though?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ever feel like you don’t belong, Red? Like nothing makes sense anymore?” he asked me.

I thought about my reply before answering. “Sometimes…,” I admitted, “so I just try to keep moving forward.”

Jagged Knife smiled. “Exactly. That’s how it always is, isn’t it? You feel it too, don’t you? You understand, the wasteland is a part of both of us. We’re the same.”

Not exactly the same. I had freakish mutant superpowers that protected me from getting shot. Still, I didn’t appreciate the comparison. “We’re nothing alike. Raiders kill without reason. I never took pleasure in inflicting pain on others...”

“Is that so? And I suppose what you did back there, that was all a happy accident?” he pointed to my hooves and I screwed my face in anger. “C’mon you lived in the wasteland too. You know how it used to be. We were all fighting to survive.”

“I remember. I guess the wasteland just came naturally to me.” I said.

“In the old world, all that mattered was your strength and your will to survive. In this new one, everything is topsy turvy. The law of the wasteland barely holds meaning anymore.”

“Maybe that’s for the best.”

Jagged laughed. The first real laugh I’d heard from him. “So what do you make of the NCR’s law then?” he asked.

I sighed. “Wasteland governments aren’t my cup of tea,” I said, “but at least ponies can live out their lives peacefully, I guess.”

“Ain’t that the truth?”

We were getting closer to Boot Hill now. I could see it in the distance. The lone geographic feature on the map stood out on the edge of the endless desert to the South.  Even from afar, I could see it was some sort of twisted graveyard.

Just a little bit further now.

“Lucky for you, me and my supplier go way back. He’s a pony who can tell you of the Enclave’s current whereabouts.” Wondering what this pony’s name was, I asked, but he didn't give me an answer. Instead smiling again, he told me, “You’ll get your questions answered soon enough.”

Oh well, it was worth a shot. 

My thoughts again drifted back to what Accolade had told me. All that was going through my head at that moment was how I wanted to kill him. I wanted to get revenge for her and for everything he’d put me through, but I kept playing along.

“We’re supposed to be meeting with this supplier of yours, right?” I asked, knowing full well that wasn’t the case.

“Of course. Looks like we’re right on time too,” he answered cryptically. Sting continued to snicker like he had a dirty little secret. He had an annoying laugh.

I glanced at Three Card in the back who gave me a slight nod and silently urged me to keep my focus ahead of me. Hotshot was out there somewhere. I could feel my healing factor in my body going much stronger than normal. Whatever this feeling meant, I had no idea.

“Good. I’m eager for us to finally finish this and go our separate ways.” I muttered.

“And I don’t suppose there’s nothing I can do that’ll convince you to join up with me?”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll manage on my own after this…”

He exhaled, “A real shame….”

“I think that you and I both know that you were never planning on going peacefully. Ain’t that right?” I said, glaring at him. “So what’s your place in all this?”

The tip of Jagged Knife’s mouth curled upward and he spoke. “Once upon a time in Equestria, there was a great raider warlord. One that united the raider clans under one banner and struck fear into the hearts of ponies across the wasteland. Then one day, he was captured by Red Eye. His empire collapsed. That warlord’s legend supposedly came to an end in Fillydelphia. Fast forward to now, and this wasteland we know is becoming more and more civilized. With the NCR marking the end of an age. All the remaining raider clans who don’t know any other way venerate the warlord and the what was. They want to be the next one to take up the warlord’s mantle.”

I snorted. “And lemme guess, you want to be that warlord?" I couldn’t really say that I cared much for the sentiment.

“Actually, most seem to think it'll be Papa Bighoof. Since he was the warlord's only technical rival back in the day. Mostly due to the fact he never left his mountain, so most of their fights ended in draws. I don’t want to end up like that. To become nothing but a legend. I’d prefer to live on my own terms.”

“So what does this cutesy raider bedtime story have to do with anything?” I asked. 
The longer this went on, the more my blood was heating up, but I kept staring ahead, trying to not lose focus. Not even for an instant.

"Like I said, the wasteland is becoming more civilized. It’s not an age for raider warlords or saviors born out of stables anymore. You can either get with the times, or be left behind."

As we approached Boot Hill, I wasn’t expecting the sheer number of wooden gravemarkers to be populating the hill. Dozens. No, hundreds, maybe? It was difficult to count how many in the wasteland probably bought it out here. How long had they been here?

“And what exactly are you planning to do about it?”

Naturally, he didn’t answer. Only hearing Sting’s veiled giggling behind me.

The silhouette of the singular SPP tower had shrunk far into the distance that it was almost like I was standing on the edge of Equestria. They had become such a common sight in the wasteland, that to not be surrounded by them on all sides almost felt alien.

There was a strange gust of wind gently caressing me as I stared across the endless void of desert expanse ahead of me. It was like the desert was calling, desiring me to trot out into it and never come back. I took a hard pass.

Standing at the foot of Boot Hill, I could see this place was likely the former location of the stable that Dodge City locals spoke of, now serving as a mass grave and corpse dumping ground for the Dodge City Gang. It was like a monument to all those who had died pointless deaths in the wasteland. Patches of exploding cacti surrounded the edges of the hill, drawing upon the discarded corpses as fertilizer.

Many of the weapons I’d been searching for were stored here in some open graves next to almost-fresh pony corpses.

All that was left of the original stable was the stable door, with its number so obscured by dust and sand that you could only barely make out the number ‘four’ if I squinted hard at it, maybe followed by a nine. Or a zero. It was difficult to tell. The rest was an empty hole in the ground.

“Since we’re nearing the end of our relationship, lemme tell you one last story,” he said. “Half of what you hear out of the wasteland sounds like made up bullshit, but one managed to stick with me over the years.”

“Sure,” I grunted.

I tried to signal to Hotshot to take the shot, but it was hard to tell if he was getting the message. Maybe Enclave sign-language was different?

“It was about this group of kids a while back who wandered from town to town, making the wasteland into their own personal playground. Nothing new for most ponies. We’ve all heard weirder tales told after all, and DJ Pon3 over the radio never talked about them much. These were the sorts of normal occurrences that could easily be chalked up to raiders. So most ponies wouldn’t ask questions, but settlements talked, and traders told stories. About how sometimes townsfolk would turn up dead after merely coming into contact with them. Or how sometimes everypony in a small village they visited would just disappear overnight with little to no explanation.”

Attempting to signal Hotshot again, I was growing more frustrated the longer this went on. What the hell is wrong with that pegasus? Couldn’t he take a hint?

“Crazy old horses would claim they were actually monsters who only looked like ponies on the outside. Bad omens from the back-when-times.” Jagged said, his voice beginning to irk me.

“Pffft. So you believe in conspiracy theories now?” I asked.

“Conspiracy theories? Nah. The thing about conspiracies is that they’re often a subtle misinterpretation of the truth. Some ponies talk about how MoA black ops stables were manipulating wasteland politics to keep us stuck in a wasteland. They just don’t want to face the truth that there’s a little bit of the wasteland in all of us. Though there are of course the rare occasional instances, where those conspiracies theories turn out to be true. ”

From the look on Three Card’s and the others’ faces, I was getting the feeling that they had never heard this story before either. So then why was I getting the sneaking suspicion that it sounded somewhat familiar?

“Actually, I was sitting here thinking to myself: “If they were really real, then why weren’t they ever reported over the radio? It all seemed like mythical wasteland nonsense to me. Traders telling stories to boost their sales. I didn’t start to believe it until someone I knew wound up dead.”

The grave markers were placed everywhere leading up to an empty hole that used to be a stable, with the paint so weathered and dusty you could barely even make out the number anymore. 

“See, there’s no way in hell that Crazy Eights would’ve gone down like that. That’s when I realized that those stories were probably true. In the back of my head, I suddenly began worrying about some random kid coming up to me and killing me and my whole gang like we were nothing as I went about a normal day. That the wasteland could be such a terrifying place. Kids like that could probably take over a whole town if they wanted. Maybe the entire wasteland if they put their minds to it.”

One particular open grave at the top of the hill caught my eye, so I made my way towards it. Out of my peripheral vision I could see the others beginning to spread out and surround me.

Then I paused looking down, and saw Angel Eyes. An empty cavity burned into his lifeless forehead, and his yellow eyes seared open with a look of horror.

“So one day, I heard that Radar had connections to some place called the Republic and I knew that Dr. Luneshine had made some valuable scientific breakthroughs. So it seemed like as good a place as any to hit.”

Subtly glancing around with growing frustration, it appeared that the shot wasn’t coming. I cursed to myself, thinking that that pegasus was totally useless. It was up to me in that case. Getting ready with Winona, I waited for Three Card to create his distraction.

“My gang started having disagreements and we split off our separate ways. That was when the Stable Dweller showed up and the rest is history. Though despite my inability to recoup my losses, I did learn something incredibly valuable on that day.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked uneasily. “And what was that?”

“That those monsters had a weakness.”

My muscles twitched as I prepared to spin around and fire.

There was a click of a recording that began to play and I heard a familiar voice. A voice I hadn’t heard in years.

“Subject one! Pay attention, citizen.”

My heart immediately began racing in my chest and I was unable to move. My hooves were rooted to the spot, and I felt the words force themselves out of my mouth in a timid filly’s voice, speaking alongside the voice on the recording. “Yes, ma’am… Sorry ma’am.”

“The subject displays abnormally high aggression centers. Physical tests have revealed certain ‘abnormalities’. Now we begin the next phase of trials. Trial number thirty-eight.”

“Miss Luneshine, I don’t like this game… I don’t want to do it anymore.”

I felt like I was reliving the past from back then. Long before Starlight Bay. It was such a long time ago, that I thought I had gotten over it, but hearing her voice made me feel like a helpless filly again.

While the recording continued to play the others watched me like I was some kind of sick spectacle.

When I managed to shake myself free of the recording’s grip, I slapped my hooves over my mouth with horror and tears in my eyes. “What did you do?!”

Plasma shots burned into my chest and hit each of my legs, causing me to drop to the ground. The pain was unbearable and the magic from the weapon interfered with my healing factor, so I was totally incapacitated for the time being.

Three Card had been caught by surprise too. As he stood there with his mouth hanging open, he shook himself free from the shock and tried to aim his laser rifle at Jagged Knife, but he wasn’t quick enough.

“Too slow!” Jagged shouted, wheeling around in an instant.

Before he could do anything, Jagged had already fired an eldritch green blast at Three Card, and he collapsed on the ground, clutching his chest as the magical energy burned deeper. It was an intentionally non-lethal shot, meant to prolong his suffering.

Sting laughed in utter amazement, “That was freaking crazy, Boss! Uh, what was that...?”

“Just a lil something I picked up when we raided the Republic, my good chum.'' he answered.

The pain was so much, I could barely breathe at first, but despite the magical nature of my injuries, my healing factor was somehow still keeping me alive.

“I didn’t want to believe it was you.” Jagged snarled, pacing towards his fallen comrade. “How could you do this to me, Monte?! After all we’ve been through together, you go and betray me like this!” The normally cool-headed raider looked unhinged, firing shots into his limbs between each sentence.

The white pony had a fatal plasma burn in his chest, but he shot him in a place to where his death wouldn’t come immediately. I struggled to watch, as I was still recovering from the shock of what was just done to me.

Three Card looked like he was trying to crawl but was physically unable to.

His former boss stood over him looking down. “What’s the matter, you got nothing to say?!” he asked, firing another shot into his mutilated leg.

The white hot pain in my chest was still burning, making it hard to breath. My healing factor had a hard time with magical energy weapons, but I had consumed so much rad-water prior that it was somehow keeping me alive. I still had trouble moving, but if Three Card could keep him distracted long enough, I could get enough of my strength back to make another move. 

Finally, with a gurgling cough Three Card managed to breathe out a few words.

“What you did… it wasn’t right with the old ways,” he wheezed. “What you did to Papa. I wouldn’t have killed my blood brothers like you did. You’re nothing but a rabid dog now... and you deserve what’s coming. We all do.”

Jagged sneered. “The old ways?” he mocked, shooting him callously in the head. “So that’s what this is about?” 

“I knew someone close to me was leaking info to the NCR, but I didn’t want to believe it was you. I trusted you, Monte. What a shame. This is just like what happened with Edgy.”

The raider boss took a moment and exhaled. Addressing me briefly he sighed, “It’s all beginning to make sense now. Following Radar’s hoofsteps all these years made me think that I was chasing after some dark wartime Ministry secret just beyond my reach. The stories. Those kids. The Republic? The truth is, all along you were just some scared little filly. I must admit, reality is often disappointing. To think that I was ever actually afraid of you.”

The sun was beginning to lower in the sky. Searching for his scope glint desperately. What the hell was going on? What was Hotshot doing?

The raider boss nudged Three Card’s lifeless corpse into the open grave next to Angel Eyes. 

“So hard to find good ponies anymore. They always stab you in the back.” He sighed, shaking his head. Then he looked back over at the single SPP tower lurking in the distance with anger, muttering, “This is all that damn Stable Dweller’s fault….”

From where I was laying, all I could do was watch.

There was a short silence until one of his raiders spoke up. “You still got us, Boss.” Sting assured, the others nodding in an attempted show of solidarity.

He sighed and turned to his underling, wearing a smile. “I do. Don’t I?” he looked to his other underlings, “I can always count on good friends to pull through for me.”

Shortly after, others began to show themselves, gathering around the graveyard like a congregation as Jagged Knife stood on top of Boot Hill, using a wooden grave marker as an altar.

“Looks like the festivities are starting.”

Stampeding hooves marked the arrival of a familiar herd of buffalo. Their warchief declared his arrival in a booming voice. “T’is I! The Mighty Warchief Battlescar!” cried their leader and Jagged Knife was quick to welcome him. 

“Good of you to make it, Chief.’

Battlescar replied with skepticism. “I care not what you are planning, one called Jagged Knife. All me and my tribe wish for is to see Dodge City burn and the NCR flattened into the earth.”

“In due time, we’re just waiting on everyone else.”

More raiders began to arrive, dressed in blood, spikes and warpaint. Casting aside their Dodge City attire. This meeting was turning into a who’s who of nearly every group in the wasteland that hated the NCR.

Jagged apologized for the one death they had along the way, giving his condolences for Three Card like some kind of sick joke.

I was still incapable of moving, being forced to watch all this transpire, but I was starting to recover. Slowly but surely, I got a little more feeling back in my legs. At this point Jagged and the others were too preoccupied to notice me.

My ears perked up as I heard another familiar voice call out, drawing everyone’s attention. Amongst the crowd of raiders arrived two unexpected figures.

“Who the hell are you two?” Jagged Knife asked flatly, everyone pointing their guns at them.

“Well, Howdy there partner!” The white unicorn tipped his hat and introduced himself, “I’m Lone Hoof, the gun hunter, and this is my friendly compadre Wild Iron! We were both thinking about joining your little cadre of like-minded individuals!”

I rolled my eyes, “Oh, great…”

“Give me one good reason why I don’t shoot you two idiots right now.” Jagged sighed.

“Tsk! Tsk! We’d like to volunteer our services of course! We heard talk and if you’re planning what I think you’re planning, then we want in. A hundred thousand cap bounty is nice n’ all, but half the fun collecting guns,” Lone Hoof said, then looked up with a sinister grin, “is getting the opportunity to try ‘em out on something...”

The minotaur threw himself before Jagged’s hooves, begging for mercy. “Oh please, Mr. Jagged Knife! Rubi’s selling out the town to the NCR and we don’t got nowhere to go! So we decided to throw in our lot with you instead. Take pity on us! Oh, wise and powerful Jagged Knife!”

“Besides, think of all those poor lil orphaned guns that are gonna need a new home!” Lone Hoof added.

“Fine. Stop kissing my hooves and I’ll allow it,” he replied with a dismissive hoof gesture.

Wild Iron apologized profusely while Lone Hoof approached me, smirking. He stood over my incapacitated body and tipped his hat. “Well howdy there, lil senorita!” He frowned as he gazed upon the sorry state of my rifle, “Tsk. Tsk. Look at what you did to Winona,”

I grunted and spat on his hooves as he leaned close and his smirk widened. 

“I’ll take that thank you,” he said reaching with his telekinesis, and slid my brother’s pistol out of its holster. “This here is payment for the one you busted.”

The second he touched my brothers gun, I felt white-hot anger drown out my other senses, including pain. “Give that back…” I growled, reaching my hoof forward.

The white stallion dangled it in front of my face like a colt playing keep-away.

My legs were beginning to feel like they could move again. I could still feel the pain in my chest and my aim was a little shaky, but it didn’t matter. The anger in me shot past its boiling point.

“Sorry, but finders k-”

Leaping to my hooves, I threw a punch as hard as I could at Lone Hoof, retrieving my gun off of him and aimed for Jagged Knife. The others were all caught off guard, unable to react fast enough. 

Only Sting was able to get between me and my target. He levitated his knife out and swiped across my face. I dodged sideways but got cut. Firing a single shot in return, the bullet phased through him naturally due to his ghost-magic.

I’d already seen this trick once before though. 

I fired again, but this time I aimed for where his hoof was touching the ground. That time it worked and Sting cried out in pain as I broke his spell. I threw a single, extremely satisfying punch straight into his muzzle. I hit him. HARD! 

The raider toppled over, bloody and laughing his ass off as he went.

Before I could turn around and shoot Jagged Knife though, he already drawn his plasma pistol and was aiming it right at me. 

There was a loud crack from far away, and a blow hit my shoulder. So hard that it nearly tore off my entire foreleg.

Blinking as I came to, trying to comprehend what just happened. I was on the ground again, bleeding. My foreleg felt like it was barely hanging on by a thread underneath my jacket, but I felt it slowly stitching itself back together again.

“Wow, you really are a monster! I thought you were down for the count.” Jagged laughed in delight.

Lone Hoof crawled over and silently snatched up my brother’s pistol again while Jagged spoke, hiding it in his duster and rubbing his swollen cheek.

“It’s all beginning to make sense. It’s because you possessed the strength back then to treat the wasteland like a joke. That’s how you were able to survive and where I’m guessing this weird hero complex of yours came from.”

“You don’t know me...” I snarled. Wanting to kill him with every ounce of my being, but my body didn’t have the strength to keep fighting. Let alone bring myself to my hooves again.

“Ah, there are those eyes again. You want to kill me so bad right now, I can feel it. It’s those increased aggression centers that Luneshine was talking about. You played games while others struggle to barely scrape by. I’m guessing you like to play the hero because you don’t know any better. It’s probably the only way you can make sense of the world.” He groaned with dissatisfaction, running a hoof through his mane. “What a waste...”

He noticed I was looking around in desperation, and a devilish grin stretched over his lips. His ice cold eyes flashing his killer again. 

“Sorry, were you expecting someone to save you? Your ‘friend’ Hotshot, maybe?” he asked. My eyes widened with shock as he mentioned his name. “He’s working for me. I’m sorry to break this to you, but he sold you out. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to trust ponies in Dodge City?”

“N-no… he didn’t. He wouldn’t.”

“There was only one thing he wanted in exchange too. Such a stupid request. He asked me not to tell you that he was at Starlight Bay on that night during Operation Cauterize.”

Upon hearing this revelation, I felt all of the strength drain out of me. A mixed cocktail of emotions that I had no clue what to do with were bubbling inside me. To think I trusted him. I’d never felt this way before in my life.

The raider boss chuckled and shrugged. “No idea what was going through his head.”

Turning my head away, I went silent. 

Suddenly, Jagged’s plasma pistol was shot from his grip, exploding into scrap and broken focusing gems. I heard the flapping of wings and felt a heavy clawed hind leg on top of me. Trying to turn my body to look upwards, I asked. “Hawkins, is that you?” 

Instead though I saw a dark pair of wings and a cyber claw. With a cybernetic eye staring back at me. With his cybernetic gun outstretched, the hitgriffon was greeted with a warm welcome.

“Sharp Eye!” Jagged grinned, signalling his ponies taking aim. “So Rubi sent you to finish me, did she?”

“This is the end of your run, Jagged. So why don’t you just go and lay down in that grave for me?”

Signalling to the others to kill the newly arrived cyber hitgriffon, he gave him a smiling farewell. The raider chuckled back, “She must be desperate.” 

With a flurry of shots, all of the raiders in the griffon’s immediate proximity were instantly disarmed. A wisp of smoke rose from the barrel of his cybernetic-pistol. Although it was a semi-auto, it sounded more like a submachine gun. He also fired it so fast that I nearly blinked and missed it.

Jagged Knife merely frowned in annoyance, “Hey, watch it. Those guns are expensive.”

The griffon was polite, but direct. His arrogance well-earned. “Are you going to make this difficult for me then? You decide. I’m fine with either, or.”

“Your reputation precedes you. I should’ve figured that she’d send you last. You’re the best of the best, after all. And your contract always goes to the highest bidder.”

“Contracts don’t matter. I go where the money takes me.” He rested his hind-paw on me as if to stake his claim. “But I am the best.”

Paying no heed to the griffon pointing a gun in his face, Jagged continued to chuckle to himself.

“Mind telling me, what is it you find so funny?” the griffon questioned.

“The fact that she waited so long to send you tells me she’s nervous. Worried that I might still have a card up my sleeve.” The raider shook his head, sighing. “That mare thinks that it’s money that controls ponies’ hearts. She thinks her money can buy her anything, including loyalty.”

The cyber-griffon smiled in agreement. “Well, she has a point.”

“Really? You’ve outright betrayed your employers in the past because you were offered more caps by the enemy. Maybe that has something to do with how she treats you with mistrust. Always keeps you at a hoof’s length.”

I heard an audible snort, Sharp Eye finding this funny. “So what? The main reason I’m still with Rubi is because she can’t be outbid. I don’t care who it is so long as she continues to pay me the most.”

Jagged’s smile widened. “Then it seems that I know Rubi a lot better than you do. Truth is, some things just aren’t for sale.”

Pointing his cyber pistol in his face caused every other raider to completely surround them in a circle of guns and novasurge rifles. Even the best shot in the wasteland couldn’t take down twenty at once.

“So are you going to make me an offer? Though I highly doubt you’ve got a hundred thousand bottle caps laying around.”

“What if I told you I knew where she keeps all of her business assets? I can tap you into her off the books accounts and you can pay yourself whatever you want for this job. More than you can count probably.” Jagged offered.

Sharp Eye was silent for a moment, but a glint flashed across his cyber eye. “I dunno, I can count pretty high. Still, it doesn’t seem like it’d be in my best interest to kill my meal ticket. Even if I were to end up fabulously wealthy afterwards. Wouldn’t really be worth it, having that many targets painted on my back.”

“New management isn’t going to have any problems. Besides, the only reason we’re speaking right now, is because you’re wondering if there’s something I can offer you that Rubi can’t. Otherwise you would have shot me down already.”

Sharp Eye chuckled appearing to be mulling it over in his head. Then he paused for a moment. “I have to admit, you have me curious. There might be one thing…”

“Name it.”

“I’ve been hearing that Gabriela Hawkins is involved in this? The truth is, I’ve got some unfinished business with that griffon, and working with Rubi won’t grant me that opportunity. So perhaps you could give her to me?”

A grim smile crossed Jagged Knife’s lips and he answered, “With what I have in mind, the NCR will have no choice but to get involved.”

He lowered his weapon in a show of the grim alliance. “Alright then, ‘Boss’. I’m all yours.”

The situation had changed. I had to warn someone!

Motioning at me laying on the ground where I was still incapable of moving, he asked, “What should we do with her in that case?”

“I’ll deal with her in a moment,” the raider boss replied. “Did you bring it like I asked?” he asked one of his underlings, placing a cigarette in his mouth. One of them quickly appeared with a fresh suit and held up a lighter. He inhaled and blew a puff of smoke.

“Right here, boss.”

Admiring the fine garment, Jagged removed his wasteland jacket and donned the black suit. As the other pony held up an old cracked mirror, he moved around, getting a feel for it and checking himself from every angle. Finally nodding in approval.

“And you kept Accolade safe for me too?” he asked.

His underling nodded again. “All of the arrangements are being made. Like you asked.”

“Good to know I could count on you,” he said, putting a hoof on his shoulder.

Then he took the lighter in his magic and put a flame to his old wasteland jacket. As it caught fire he tossed in the grave with Angel Eyes and Three Card. “I guess Rubi should be happy that I’m finally doing what she asked and getting rid of this old thing, right?” he mused.

After that, he climbed up on top of a grave that stood over me, and addressed his raider allies. His voice boomed loudly as he declared, “We’re all here today, because we have no future! Raiders, mercenaries and cutthroats. The wasteland has left us behind. There is no other option for us! As we stand upon this cemetery today, a monument to those who’ve had their lives taken from them prematurely, let all of us put up a toast to the old warlord!”

All of the others waited on his next word, at long last waiting to hear the words they had been longing to hear again.

“This’ll be our last night in the wasteland, boys!” he cried, and they all cheered.

Suddenly, Jagged Knife ducked as a shot from a sniper rifle narrowly missed his head. The raiders all spun around in a panic.

“What’s going on?!” he asked frantically.

I couldn’t tell what was happening from where I was laying.

A wicked grin crossed over Sharp Eye’s beak. “Speak of the devil...”

He proceeded to describe the scene to his new employer. Hawkins had attacked Hotshot and almost killed him, causing him to miss his assassination attempt. I remembered that she didn’t know about my healing factor, so she must’ve seen him shoot at me and immediately assumed he was working for Jagged Knife. Was she doing this for my sake? I also thought Hotshot was working for Jagged Knife though. Why did he just shoot at him?

The pegasus almost managed to catch her off guard with a hidden laser pistol, but she quickly disarmed him and had him pinned on the ground. Pointing her Kingfisher up to his temple, she noticed they were being watched. Taking one look at the cyber-griffon caused her to hesitate, looking at me, then hastily fly away in the opposite direction. Hotshot fled somewhere to the north-east, leaving both me and the sniper behind.

That’s when it dawned on me. I was really all alone.

“Do you want me to chase after her?” Sharp Eye asked. “She might be going to warn the NCR.”

“Don’t worry about them for now.”

I didn’t care anymore what would happen to him. The fact that he would lie to me after I trusted him. I turned my head away in anger, only to notice Jagged was standing over me again.

“I bet you’ve never thought your luck would ever run out this way. I’ll tell you one more story before I send you to the afterlife, kid. In the wasteland, there’s a little something called “Rota Fortunae”. It represents the Wheel of Fate. Just like that little roulette cutie mark on your flank. Must be some sorta fucked up version of fate, if you ask me. You came here expecting to kill me, but now you’re the one staring death in the face. Or something like that. Ironic, isn’t it?”

The raider boss turned back to me one last time and I  looked into his eyes. They reminded me of the same look that the Enclave officer had given me on that day.

He tossed a recording of Radar into the grave next to me, which began to play. I heard his grandfatherly voice again, but couldn’t quite make out the words.

“You can have this. Sorry to break it to you, but you aren’t getting out of this.” he apologized. “Suppose it’s fitting enough that I use Radar’s old gun to kill you. Monster or no, I doubt even you can come back from the dead...”

“Radar, are you out there?” I thought. “Someone. Anyone?”

Jagged Knife admired the gun briefly before pointing it at me. “You know?” he said. “I could say a clever line right now, but… that’d be cliche.”

He raised Radar’s old gun with a half-cocked smile and pointed it at me.

For some reason, ever since I was a filly I always hated losing. I always got mad when I lost at a game, regardless of what it was. Everything was over now though. I gambled, and lost. So this was the wasteland everyone was talking about.

“Seeya.”

The magic bullet from Radar’s gun flooded my skull and everything went black.


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